Conventional computing devices typically include one to many conventional types of connectable external devices such as mice, keyboards, wireless modems, thumb drives, hard drives, etc., as well as internal devices such as hard drives and SSD drives.
However, the specifications for many of the interfaces for these devices such as Serial AT Attachment (SATA), have no provision for backing up data written to SATA devices. One way to increase reliability of the data is by running specialized software applications. One disadvantage of this approach is lack of interoperability between operating systems—each operating system and file system requires a different backup application. Another disadvantage is the requirement to have a separate storage device for backup. That complicates system configuration. Also, system administrators require maintaining separate configuration of each system due to differences in software and hardware. Example prior art approaches include EP Application Number EP2407905 and EP Application Number EP2517144.
Performance is another issue. Software-based backup systems greatly impact CPU performance and cause many users to turn the backup program off.
Meanwhile, there are a number of applications that would greatly benefit from efficient mass storage data backups, such as applications for storing sensitive data on SATA mass storage devices. Accordingly there remains a need for efficient techniques for performing backups of mass storage devices such as SATA storage devices.